A team of astronomers who had been creating a survey of stars at the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidlberg, Germany have detected a planetary system – 375 light-years away in the constellation Cetus – that is nearly as old as the universe.

The star in the system, designated HIP 11952, is estimated to be 12.8 billion years old, having formed just a billion years after the Big Bang. Our system, by comparison, is only 4.6 billion years old. Two gas giant planets, HIP 11952b and HIP 11952c, each the size of Jupiter, orbit HIP 11952 and have an orbital period of seven days and nine and a half months, respectively.

The age of this system is certainly stunning, but the composition of the HIP 11952 and its planets are what baffles astronomers: they lack the presence of heavy elements (carbon, oxygen, and iron, for example), contradicting a major aspect of the Accretion theory.

Basically, the Accretion theory describes how solar systems are born and develop, but it also states that planets need a high concentration of heavy elements to form. Many planets that astronomers have studied before the discovery of the HIP 11952 system have all been made of many heavy elements. Even the gas giants in our own solar system contain them – mostly metals in their cores, which need these elements in order to form.

However, shortly after the Big Bang, the lighter elements (hydrogen and helium) dominated the universe. Stars were just beginning to form. Only when these first stars went nova did heavy elements exist, but this must have occurred billions of years following the Big Bang, considering the average lifespan of stars.

Despite the contradiction brought forth by the HIP 11952 system, the Accretion theory is still backed-up by evidence of other planets – largely detected by the NASA spacecraft Kepler – that are composed of heavier elements. These planets and their parent stars, however, are young in comparison with the universe’s age.

Nonetheless, the fact that HIP 11952b, and HIP 11952c exist proves that planets are able to form without the presence of heavy elements and, therefore, have astronomers considering new possibilities of how planets come into being. To solve the Accretion theory issue, they would need to further find and study older and metal-poor planets.

“We would like to discover and study more planetary systems of this kind,” Anna Pasquali tells Huffington Post. Pasquali is a co-author of the team’s paper and is from the Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University (ZAH). “That would allow us to refine our theories of planet formation. The discovery of the planets of HIP 11952 shows that planets have been forming throughout the life of our Universe.”

According to their paper, the team accounts for the lack of heavy elements and HIP 11952’s long age by surmising that HIP 11952 is a dwarf star, a type of star that has low metallicity and a long lifespan.

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Data from recent experiments at the United States’ Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, indicate hints to a possible confirmation of the Higgs boson’s existence.

In 1964, British physicist Peter Higgs postulated that mass came from elementary particles, namely from a special kind of boson, or the Higgs boson. This particle was thought to exist shortly after the Big Bang – more specifically, at the time when particles gained mass.

The Higgs is predicted by the Standard Model, a chart that describes how elementary particles and the four universal forces (electromagnetic, weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, and gravity) behave and interact with one another. If the Higgs boson’s existence were to be confirmed, not only would the mysterious particle complete the Model, but it would also fix any inconsistencies.

In December 2011, particle physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, or the European Council for Nuclear Research) noticed unexpected energy fluctuations in the data during their experiment. These fluctuations were thought to have been caused by the Higgs boson decaying. (When particles decay, the emit energy).

There were doubts about the Higgs causing the fluctuations; since then, the LHC, Tevatron, and other particle accelerator laboratories around the have collaborated to search for the Higgs boson, hoping to find correlations of spikes of energy in the graphs.

Last Friday, Tevatron became successful. Its CDF and DZero experiments, working separately, found similar spikes, but the energy was much greater. Previously, particle physicists have hypothesized the Higgs boson to have mass ranging from 115 to 135 gigaelectronvolts (GeV). However, this recent energy excess indicates that the Higgs may have a mass of 147 to 179 GeV instead. Nevertheless, the fluctuations were there, and the LHC and other particle accelerator laboratories have noted them too.

“We are not done yet,” Rob Roser, CDF co-spokesperson and physicist at Fermilab, insists in Fermilab’s press release. “Together with our LHC colleagues, we expect 2012 to be the year we know whether the Higgs exists or not, and assuming it is discovered, we will have first indications that it behaves as predicted by the Standard Model.”

To actually detect the Higgs boson is difficult. The particle decays quick enough for instruments not to catch their being. Furthermore, instead of decaying into only one or two particles, it decays into sets of particles, all of which are different each time. In order to make things a little simpler, Tevatron and the LHC will be using different methods to hunt for the Higgs.

The LHC, which is an underground circular collider, will smash protons together while using maximum mass energy of 14 GeV. Meanwhile, Tevatron, a synchrotron (a type of circular particle accelerator in which a particle beam travels, guided by a magnetic field), will smash protons and antiprotons together at maximum mass energy of 2 GeV and look for sets of bottom quarks – a type of quark – into which the Higgs boson may decay.

According to Fermilab, ultimately “[d]iscovering the Higgs boson relies on observing a statistically significant excess of the particles into which the Higgs decays and those particles must have corresponding kinematic properties that allow for the mass of the Higgs to be reconstructed.” With the two laboratories experimenting simultaneously, yet with dissimilar methods, particle physicists hope to come across more and better evidence.

“One picture may show a child that is blocked from the other’s view by a tree,” explains Gregorio Bernardi, DZero co-spokesperson at the Nuclear Physics Laboratory of the High Energies (LPNHE) in Paris.

“Both pictures may show the child but only one can resolve the child’s features. You need to combine both viewpoints to get a true picture of who is in the park. At this point both pictures are fuzzy and we think maybe they show someone in the park. Eventually the LHC with future data samples will be able to give us a sharp picture of what is there. The Tevatron by further improving its analyses will also sharpen the picture which is emerging today.”

Like the LHC, Tevatron aims to study the fundamental building blocks of the universe and relationship between matter and energy by trying to create the conditions that existed at the time of the Big Bang. Fermilab receives financial support from the United States’ Department of Energy.

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This year, the high profile South Korean boy band, Big Bang, will make their very first world tour titled ‘ALIVE TOUR 2012′ through Live Nation, performing in 25 cities throughout 16 countries including Asia, North America, South America, and Europe.

Big Bang was formed by YG Entertainment and debuted in 2006. The group consists of five members: G -Dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P, Daesung, and Seungri. Unlike many other bands, they do not have an eye-catching appearance, but they do have enough talent to be famous and have changed audiences’ attitudes. Each member has impressed audiences with their talents, can sing and rap well, compose music, dance, and act.

Representing Asia-Pacific, Big Bang emerged to the bigger world audience as a nominee for Best Worldwide Act winner of 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) held in Belfast, Northern Ireland. There, apart from Queen, Big Bang was the only winner not from North America.

Live Nation has conducted world tours for Madonna and U2, and Big Bang is the first Asian group with whom they have teamed up. Live Nation is currently a promotional agent for K-pop singers in one to two regions in America and Europe.

Alan Ridgeway, Live Nation’s president, said that he is very happy to work with YG Entertainment and Big Bang to show their work to worldwide K-pop fans. He hoped this world tour would be a good starting point for the Korea branch they established last December, and they expect it to contribute to the K-pop fever expansion.

To prepare for the tour,  Laurieann Gibson, who is a well-known director, choreographer, actress, and creative director, will be taking the lead position as director for ‘Alive Tour 2012′. She is known for directing Lady Gaga’s ‘The Monster Ball Tour’, in addition to choreographing “Poker Face”, “Judas”, and “Telephone”. She has also worked with top stars like Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Beyonce, and Katy Perry.

Leroy Bennett will be the stage/lighting designer, and Ken Van Druten will be the sound director. Bennett has previously worked with Madonna, Paul McCartney, and the Eagles, while Druten has worked with Eminem, J-Jay, and Linkin Park.  The visual contents producing team, Possible Productions, will also prepare for Big Bang’s world tour.

YG Entertainment expressed in their press release, “We are in the process of preparing the world’s best concert with the best production team to equal the anticipation of the world fans who are waiting for the first concert they will get to meet Big Bang… With the newly released album and the starting of the world tour, you will be able to confirm Big Bang’s maturity and skill.”

Image Courtesy of    http://www.flickr.com/photos/koreanet/

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Last December, three physicists – Jun Nishimura of KEK (High Energy Accelerator Research Organization), Asato Tsuchiya of Shizuoka University, and Sang-Woo Kim of Osaka University – formed a numerical simulation via supercomputer and proved that the universe composed of ten dimensions (nine spatial and one temporal) at the time of the Big Bang.

With the success of their experiment, they proved a portion of the superstring theory to be true, thereby giving the long-proposed theory validity. In addition to proposing that the universe is made up of ten dimensions, the superstring theory – also known as the “theory of everything” – harmonizes the theory of relativity with quantum mechanics, and puts forth the theory that everything is essentially composed of tiny, oscillating strings.

Protons and neutrons in atoms can be broken down into quarks, which then  can be further broken down into strings. The manner in which the strings vibrate affects the properties of particles, determining which particle is which, and accounts for the existence of the four fundamental forces (electromagnetic, weak nuclear, strong nuclear, gravity).

The superstring theory was put forth more than forty years ago. Much of it is theoretical since it can only be proven through mathematics and not yet with experiments. To account for the missing six dimensions, theoretical physicists have proposed that we have not yet been able to detect them because they are believed to be miniscule. We would also have difficulty visualizing them because we can only sense the three dimensions we inhabit.

Truly, it was more of a trick to prove how the nine spatial dimensions (leaving out the one dimension concerning time) developed into three over time than to prove nine initially existed and account for where the other six went. Throughout the years, various models and scenarios have been made based on calculations but failed. Finally, Nishimura, Tsuchiya, and Kim created the simulation of the Big Bang through superstring theory calculations, from which they developed virtual matrices that represented interactions between strings.

In his interview with Life’s Little Mysteries Nishimura explains, “What we do in this simulation is to generate hundreds or thousands of matrices, each of which describes the whole history of the universe during some finite time interval. We then have to take an average over the matrices to get the physical information as to how the universe evolves in time.”

In the end, Nishimura and his colleagues were successful. The numerical simulation not only shows that there really were nine dimensions at the time of the Big Bang, but also shows how three dimensions broke off from the other nine over time and how they compose our present observable universe.

This new finding greatly supports the superstring theory, giving it more of a chance, though the experiment only validates part of the theory because the simulation provides only part of the solution. Other factors have yet to be proven. However, this type of simulation with supercomputers may solve other cosmological mysteries, such as dark matter and dark energy.

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A pair of two-billion-year-old clouds of gas are providing scientists with new clues about the origins of the universe this week. These recently discovered pockets of “pristine gas” have remained untouched since the time of the Big Bang, and have never been mingled with heavier elements forged by later stars — giving them the lowest measurement of “metallacity” in the universe.

The discovery will help to lend further credence to the Big Bang theory, as researchers have long believed that only the lightest elements in the universe formed immediately after it’s creation. The lack of dense metals in the pristine clouds, which formed just minutes after the initial Big Bang, serves as some of the first hard evidence of the theory’s accuracy.

In an interview with SPACE.com, astronomer Michele Fumagalli of UC Santa Cruz commented;

“It’s actually a very nice confirmation of the theory, because the theory predicts that in the first few minutes after the Big Bang, things like hydrogen and helium were produced and no metals. So, this is the first time that we have a very strong observation and evidence that indeed this theory is correct. It’s good news for cosmology.”

Distant objects in space are able to analyzed from Earth by rays of light that provide a “fingerprint” of the gases they contain, which is how it was discerned that these particular clouds contain only hydrogen and deuterium. The fact that such pockets of the universe exist uncontaminated by heavier elements is sufficient cause to reexamine the way stars disperse metals.

Originally, it was assumed that pristine gas was not locatable by scientists because heavy elements from early stars had been very thoroughly spread throughout the universe. Now that the clouds’ existence has been proven, researchers will be forced reconsider certain aspects of how matter travels through space.

Previous efforts have been made by scientists to find pristine gas, but this is the first successful attempt. An ongoing study of extragalactic gases revealed the clouds by chance near the constellations of Leo and Ursa Major. It is currently unknown how many other examples of pristine gas might exist throughout the universe, but the search is on for cosmologists.

Physicist John O’Meara of Saint Michael’s college was quoted by Discovery News explaining, ”One of our biggest questions in cosmology is how galaxies get the gas they need to form stars, and how they also sent out the remnants of stars into their surroundings.” Some researchers now theorize that pristine clouds may in fact be the source that feeds young galaxies the cold gas to create stars.

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Five guys with powerful voices, who can sing perfectly solo, but when put together in one band, make an explosion with every song. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Big Bang. They are not any theory or a television show, but a boy band from South Korea. While boy bands may have died here in the US, they are still lively in South Korea and Big Bang is far from the exception. The band is made up of leader G-Dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P., Daesung, and SeungRi. Making their first official debut on August 19, 2006, these boys are no strangers to the entertainment industry.

Two of the members, leader G-Dragon and lead vocalist Taeyang had signed with YG Entertainment since they were both twelve years old (thirteen years old Korean age), while a third member, T.O.P. was an underground rapper. Shortly after, the band released their first mini, mini album known as a single, on August 28, which reached #5 on the South Korea Monthly Chart. Exactly one month later, on September 28, the boys released another single, followed by a third in November of the same year. Big Bang finally released their first album, “Bigbang Vol. 1” on December 21, 2006, reaching #1 on the weekly charts and #10 on the monthly charts.

Since their debut in 2006, Big Bang has released four EPs, four concert albums, three singles, two studio albums, and one compilation album—and that is just the Korean discography. They have also debuted in Japan, releasing five singles, three studio albums, two EPs, and two compilation albums. Big Bang released their first live concert album “The First/Real Live Concert” in February 2007, which after the initial sell-out, the album continued to be in such a high demand that YG Entertainment were forced to repackage and resell the album by the end of 2007.

Riding on their success of their mini-album, the group received many awards, including “Best Male Group,” “Song of the Year” and “Artist of the Year.” In early 2008, the group ventured into Japan, releasing their first Japanese EP, which charted at #10 on the Oricon chart with little promotion. By 2009, and enough fans in Korea and overseas under their belts, the group decided to take a break and pursue solo activities. Leader G-Dragon, SeungRi, and Taeyang released one album each, while rapper T.O.P. and Daesung collaborated with other artists.

After two years on hiatus as a full group, Big Bang returned in 2011 with their Big Show concert along with their latest EP, “Tonight” on February 23, 2011. “Tonight” was the first album to reach the top 10 on US iTunes, and is the only non-English language album in the top 100. The album had a pre-sale order of over 10,000 copies. In a week, over 100,000 album copies were sold! The EP gained much popularity in countries all over the world, and was received quite positively. The group has also been the models for various commercial films (CFS) in Korea. From cell phones to cameras, beers, automobiles and even ice cream, Big Bang has endorsed a total of ten products from June 2010 to May 2011, ranking them second highest paid males in Korea, in terms of CFs.

From 2006 to present day, the members of Big Bang have been very busy. They have released a total of twenty-two albums and singles both in Korea and Japan. They have been in many CFs over the years, collaborated with many artists, and even traveled to Las Vegas to film their music video for their latest lead track “Tonight.” These boys have class, style, and skill, which will definitely take them as high as they possibly want.

Image Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/deilaina/

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Lately, American music can be described in one word: baroque. The simple eight notes Pachelbel’s melody can be found in many popular songs, such as Avril Lavigne’s “Skater Boy” or Aerosmith’s “Crying.”

Radios today play popular songs that include two main themes: a dancing rhythm and some guy trying to seduce a girl. Artists including Usher, Lil Wayne, Taio Cruz, and Flo-Rida have engaging songs with upbeat rhythms, perfect for dancing. However, when listening to the lyrics, the same songs are just like the rest, talking about sexual exploitations of women. There is no creativity or uniqueness. Enter Korean Wave.

Korean Wave, aka Hallyu, refers to the spread of Korean culture across the globe from Europe to Latin America, entertaining society through movies, music, and food. Though North American Hallyu is fairly recent, Koreans are no strangers in Hollywood. In fact, many Hollywood producers have been requesting Korean and Korean-Americans to star in their movies. In May 2009, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, starring Korean actor Daniel Henney, appeared in theaters. Later in the summer, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was released in August, starring Byeong-Heon Lee. Finally in November, actor and singer Rain was the lead role in Ninja Assassin.

Aside from film entertainment, Hallyu has also impacted music. The three top entertainment agencies in Korea, SM, JYP, and YG have produced many popular artists. Artists such as Wonder Girls, Big Bang, Super Junior, and 2PM have made swept various music charts in the US. In fact, in 2009, Wonder Girls were the first Korean singers to place on US Billboard’s Hot 100 charts with their song “Nobody.” Hallyu has not gone unnoticed by US music producers. Korean artists are collaborating with many well-known producers including Kayne West, Teddy Riley, DJ Diplo, Rodney Jerkins, and Will.i.am.

Why exactly is K-pop so popular? For one thing, the music is addicting and fresh. Each artist has their own unique style of music, from girly to eye-catching, shirt ripping. The lyrics have more meaning than “getting the girl.” There are many genres from ballads to hip hop to rock. Korean artists sing with feelings, pouring into their music, about love, heartbreak, friendship, and happiness. However, there is more to just music that makes k-pop entertaining. There are variety shows that the artists appear as guests as well as dramas and movies. The entertainment companies select individuals who have raw talent and individuality that can be shaped to not only become singers but also radio show hosts, actors, dancers, and models.

With the Korean Wave hitting the US, one would think there would be more artists trying to make a break in the American music market and yet only a handful have attempted. The earliest artist to debut in US was Se7en, in March 2008 with his single “Girls” featuring Lil Kim. Shortly after, Queen of K-pop BoA debuted in October 2008 with her hit single “Eat You Up.” The summer of 2009 was a major moment in K-pop when Wonder Girls were chosen to be one of the opening acts for the Jonas Brothers World Tour. In 2011, the trio JYJ is headlining their second world tour hitting major cities including Los Angeles, New York City, and San Jose.

Besides touring the US, there have been several artists that have made a different splash: US iTunes Chart. Between 2010 and 2011 there have been four major artists to make a mark on iTunes Chart. In March 2010, music group Epik High became the first Korean to debut #1 in the Hip-hop album chart with their album Epilogue beating out performers such as Ludacris, Kayne West, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, and Black Eyed Peas. Four months later, solo artist Taeyang placed #3, becoming the first Korean artist to place under R&B/Soul album category. Continuing to September, 2NE1’s new album To Anyone debuted #2, beating previous artist. The shocking news is that this group did not have any overseas promotions! Lastly, in February of 2011, Big Bang made a record in the top 10 based solely on their pre-orders. Not only that but they are the only non-English language album to ever chart in the top 100.

I guess what I am trying to say is the K-pop genre is vibrant and continue to make their way to the US market. With fans all over the world, the US is no exception. As Hallyu continues to spread across the globe, expect to see more Korean artists making indents in the US market. The music is fun, great workout songs, and is more relatable. For those who are interested in this genre, a few artists to look into are TVXQ, Super Junior, Big Bang, SNSD, and Epik High.

Image Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/bokamokacoka/

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